Ranking Every Houston Defensive Position Group by Confidence Rating
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Houston football has had a very consistent and powerful defense throughout its history.
With the talent added last year, many different positions on the roster gained new stars that changed how impactful these positions were. For the defense, the portal and recruitment period shaped what the defense is now.
When talking about confidence rating, how much depth does this defense have and how impactful are the players when they go on the turf?
3. Linebackers
Starting with linebackers, their position has had a rough time for the past couple of years.
With less talent on the defensive line in 2023, many opponents who would run the ball had major breakthroughs in the ground game against Houston. When Head Coach Willie Fritz stepped in as a new coach in 2024, the defensive line got better but not good.
In 2025, Fritz had a major recruiting class and made major moves in the transfer portal. After gaining Sione Fotu from Utah, the new-look linebacker room proved to be a strong force for their 2025 campaign.
Heading into 2026, the new additions to the Linebacker core, like Miller Malone, look to be new talent that can make waves in the defense. With some more team chemistry building up in the offseason, this may be one of the better positions to look out for on the defense.
2. Secondary
Houston's secondary in 2025 was lethal, and 2026 looks just as dangerous.
In 2023, Houston's secondary was decent but never had enough depth to continue stopping defenses. With major holes throughout the roster, it seemed that Houston had nothing to fight off a deep pass.
However, Fritz came in and changed everything for the secondary. Just like the linebacker room, Fritz had managed to have two major recruiting classes in 2024 and 2025, building up the secondary piece by piece.
This led to a good amount of depth on the secondary and talent in every position. Compared to the years before, this group looks to stay dangerous.
1. Defensive line
When it comes to the defensive line, it has also had struggles in the past. Just like the Secondary and the Linebacker rooms, it had major problems in 2023 that was fixed through the talent that Fritz had brought in.
However, the power and depth of this group look to be among the best on the roster, with major transfers like Ashton Porter joining the Cougars in 2025. The Defensive line will definitely be a group to watch heading into 2026.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/houston as Ranking Every Houston Defensive Position Group by Confidence Rating.
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